Tanjiro Kamado is about as close as you can get to Lawful Good not Lawful Stupid

[BRKNdevil]

Kimetsu No Yaiba. Watch it, MC is about as close as i can see a Lawful Good Paladin without being stupid about it

That said, his party members have used INT as their dump stat pretty badly

[GlenSmash!]

Michael Carpenter from the Dresden Files is a fantastic Lawful Good Paladin that is never Lawful stupid.

Still, I'll give Kimetsu No Yaiba a shot.

[NNescio]

Nah, both of them aren't as LG as Carrot Ironfoundersson (post Guards! Guards!).

(Granted, Captain Carrot does have plot on his side and a preternatural Charisma that borders on 3.5e diplomancers [on the lower end of the scale], but he doesn't abuse either.)

[Pex]

Superman
Captain America

[LudicSavant]

Kimetsu No Yaiba. Watch it, MC is about as close as i can see a Lawful Good Paladin without being stupid about it

That said, his party members have used INT as their dump stat pretty badly

I felt that show was really promising... until he got party members. Turned me off to it pretty quick, should I give it a second chance?

[GlenSmash!]

Superman
Captain America

i'm still somewhat amazed at how good MCU Captain America is.

[HappyDaze]

i'm still somewhat amazed at how good MCU Captain America is.

I agree, but I'm torn on whether he would be Lawful God vs. Neutral Good. He does the LG approach of what society expects of him...until society changes for (in his eyes) the worst even if not towards evil. Then he starts seeming more NG.

[GlenSmash!]

I agree, but I'm torn on whether he would be Lawful God vs. Neutral Good. He does the LG approach of what society expects of him...until society changes for (in his eyes) the worst even if not towards evil. Then he starts seeming more NG.
I can see that.

I can also see the case that him clinging to what the society he was from expected is lawful good too.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Superman
Captain America

Gonna expand on this, since I also find it pretty odd that you could gloss over some of the longest standing icons of justice.

Superman is, by design, the ideal form of goodness. He has immense power, but is responsible with it. He could wipe out cities and crush his foes beneath his boot, but he doesn't and he has the control necessary to handle comparably fragile human beings. He spends his entire existence striving to do all the good he can and he can do a lot of it considering his speed. He's so "perfectly" good that when an adaptation changes that image of him (Man of Steel ending) it causes people to absolutely freak out.

Captain America is a more relatable version of Superman in his actions and power. Not to diminish Captain America's character, but much of what can be said about Superman just plainly applies to him in a lesser way. Even the part where an adaptation changes that image of him (Secret Empire) and causes people to absolutely freak out.

But with all that said, alignment, especially in comic books, can be subjective based on the readers inferences as well as the version of the character they're referencing. There are a legitimate subset of people who view Batman as Lawful Good. I love Batman, he and Spiderman may be my favorite comic book characters of all time, but Batman as Lawful Good? Not a chance. Society (and the law) doesn't know what's best for Gotham, Batman does, and if that conflicts with the law Batman doesn't really care.

I'm of the opinion that most lawful good characters in popular media tend to keep out of the lawful stupid territory pretty well, the ones that don't are either intentionally that way (whether for satire or to fill a "good guy foil" position for a MC) or only end up there on rare occasions. I don't know if I'd argue that Tanjiro is the best example of LG even in his own universe.

[darknite]

I agree, but I'm torn on whether he would be Lawful God vs. Neutral Good. He does the LG approach of what society expects of him...until society changes for (in his eyes) the worst even if not towards evil. Then he starts seeming more NG.

He took an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution. So when in doubt, he follows that. The violation of higher, inalienable rights occasionally supersede even his loyalty to the law of the land.

[BRKNdevil]

I felt that show was really promising... until he got party members. Turned me off to it pretty quick, should I give it a second chance?

The Party Members don't really improve unfortunately. the cowardly one i'm pretty sure has gone under hypnotherapy on Space Marine Level indoctrination and can only fight when KO'd, and his other party member is what you get when someone rolls Barbarian Stupid instead of Conan the Barbarian

If you can ignore the party and focus on MC is an OK story with great animation, but jesus, I find myself jumping through their self pity/ stupidity.

[LudicSavant]

The Party Members don't really improve unfortunately. the cowardly one i'm pretty sure has gone under hypnotherapy on Space Marine Level indoctrination and can only fight when KO'd, and his other party member is what you get when someone rolls Barbarian Stupid instead of Conan the Barbarian

If you can ignore the party and focus on MC is an OK story with great animation, but jesus, I find myself jumping through their self pity/ stupidity.

Yeah I personally found the party members pretty unwatchable. It just completely changed the tone of the show for me.

[GreyBlack]

I agree, but I'm torn on whether he would be Lawful God vs. Neutral Good. He does the LG approach of what society expects of him...until society changes for (in his eyes) the worst even if not towards evil. Then he starts seeming more NG.

Lawful Good doesn't mean "never breaks the law." It means that you tend to align yourself with the Law and Good. A character is not an alignment, but a character can have an alignment.

[Sabeta]

For the people who don't want to watch an anime to see a Lawful Good character. Here's a mostly spoiler free character study of him. Spoiler-marked anyways for people who prefer to have literally zero information.

As the title implies, Tanjiro is a swordsman who hunts Demons. Demons themselves stand in a weird grey area of morality. They were once human, and have now been forced into a situation where they consume humans to survive. Some demons are bad to the bone, slaughtering humans by the dozens and eating them to amass power. Some are more reserved, only doing so because they simply can't stave off the hunger, and curse their wretched lives. Regardless though, Tanjiro kills them. He does it with great remorse and compassion, but at the end of the day no matter what their motives may have been they're murderers and need to meet justice. It helps that Tanjiro's sister is a demon who; through force of will, managed to avoid eating people. Thus, she's proof of concept that the demons don't actually NEED to hurt others, they simply give into instinct. As long as they've never hurt a human, Tanjiro lets them live.

As for my thoughts on the show itself. It's alright. Watch it for the action, mostly. The worldbuilding has more plot holes than Swiss Cheese, most of the characters have at least one extremely annoying quirk, literally every fight ends with the tragic backstory of the demon, and more often than not I really just don't care about them. Yet despite all of the above complaints, the action sequences are SO GOOD I heartily recommend the series anyway. I give it a 6/10 for story, 12/10 for animation alone.

[Hail Tempus]

Lawful Good doesn't mean "never breaks the law." It means that you tend to align yourself with the Law and Good. A character is not an alignment, but a character can have an alignment.

"Compromise where you can. Where you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say, 'No, you move'."

Sounds pretty Lawful Good to me.

[GreyBlack]

"Compromise where you can. Where you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say, 'No, you move'."

Sounds pretty Lawful Good to me.

No disagreement. I was pointing that out to the people who find it hard to square the circle of him being at times pro government and anti government at others.

[loki_ragnarock]

Adding to the Lawful Good but not Lawful Stupid characters theme:

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs from NCIS.

[Hail Tempus]

No disagreement. I was pointing that out to the people who find it hard to square the circle of him being at times pro government and anti government at others. I think a lot of people seem to think that a lawful good character is a mindless follower. Which is nonsense. Someone with a highly developed moral code is more likely to stand in opposition to the government and even their fellow citizens when they go bad.

A Lawful Good character will support the law when the law is good, or at the very least neutral.

[Lvl45DM!]

I agree, but I'm torn on whether he would be Lawful God vs. Neutral Good. He does the LG approach of what society expects of him...until society changes for (in his eyes) the worst even if not towards evil. Then he starts seeming more NG.

Cap is explicitly libertarian in the MCU. Opposed to enforced govt control of his actions. That actually screams CG to me. He is constantly, explicitly concerned with freedom of the individual.

Tony is NG, does whatever he thinks is best in the moment, whether its telling the Senate to blow off, or giving in to the Sokovia Accords.

Vision is the LG one, concerned with equations leading to abstract generalized catastrophe and holding to Cap's actions as a guide for himself. He cares about community and the concepts thereof, which shows in how he tries to help Scarlet Witch.

[Hail Tempus]

Cap is explicitly libertarian in the MCU. Opposed to enforced govt control of his actions. That actually screams CG to me. He is constantly, explicitly concerned with freedom of the individual.

Tony is NG, does whatever he thinks is best in the moment, whether its telling the Senate to blow off, or giving in to the Sokovia Accords.

Vision is the LG one, concerned with equations leading to abstract generalized catastrophe and holding to Cap's actions as a guide for himself. He cares about community and the concepts thereof, which shows in how he tries to help Scarlet Witch. Cap has no issues living in a society governed by the rule of law. He has no instinct to tear the system down if the system is just and fair.

Tony isn’t particularly good. He occasionally does good things, but his primary interest is preserving himself and the people he loves.

And Vision, well, he’s a self-centered, controlling boyfriend. He doesn’t try to help Wanda, and he has no interest in her independence or agency. He basically locks her up against her will in Civil War. He’s incredibly powerful and forces her to do what he wants, against her wishes. Vision is lawful neutral, at best.

[Throne12]

Adding to the Lawful Good but not Lawful Stupid characters theme:

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs from NCIS.

No Gibbs is not lawful good. His more neutral good with lawful tendencies. Because he is good Aligned he MOSTLY follows the law. But he constantly breaks or bends or just look the other way and let someone else break the law. The reason he is always getting in trouble is because he has built a reputation of not following the rules and doing thing his way. That is one of the things that make him charming. He's willing to break small laws or loopholes to get the result he wants.

[GreyBlack]

Cap is explicitly libertarian in the MCU. Opposed to enforced govt control of his actions. That actually screams CG to me. He is constantly, explicitly concerned with freedom of the individual.

Tony is NG, does whatever he thinks is best in the moment, whether its telling the Senate to blow off, or giving in to the Sokovia Accords.

Vision is the LG one, concerned with equations leading to abstract generalized catastrophe and holding to Cap's actions as a guide for himself. He cares about community and the concepts thereof, which shows in how he tries to help Scarlet Witch.

Hmm. No.


Lawful good (LG) creatures can be counted on to do the right thing as expected by society.

If that smacks of Vision to you (i.e. "I'm so above society that its rules don't apply to me"), I'm hesitant to see what your idea of Law even means.


Neutral good (NG) folk do the best they can to help others according to their needs.

Do you _really_ think that describes Tony Stark? Post- Iron Man 3, I can _kinda_ see that, but I think he still fits better with...


Chaotic good (CG) creatures act as their conscience directs, with little regard for what others expect.

This one is a little more interesting because, yes, Cap does act as his conscience directs. To say that it's "with little regard for what others expect" is pushing it, though, especially because he is often expected to do evil actions, or at least "not good". As such, he does the right thing as expected by _the people_ and society at large, not necessarily the people running it.

To reCap (ha! pun), Vision is not Lawful Good, Iron Man is likely Chaotic Good, and Cap is probably not Chaotic Good.

[Draz74]

Adding to the Lawful Good but not Lawful Stupid characters theme:

How can this thread have gotten this far on this site without mentioning O-chul?